Firmware Needed for WD50NMZM-59BDAS1

[ddrecovery]

Anyone have FW from this exact model SP3?
WD50NMZM-59BDAS1
0001000C
Many thanks.

[ddrecovery]

Bump....

[cheadledatarecovery]

I'm going to bump this too. I'm also in need of the same firmware resources.

Anyone?

Thanks,
John

[Hardcore Games]

AFAIK this WD disk product has so many revisions it may be almost impossible to find the right donor for a recovery. The WD passport lineup has been a real horror story.

I have found value with my Orico 5-disk box which makes it trivial to copy data around. My more recent 4-SSD box does the same with M.2 SSD. Both can have media yanked and replaced as desired.

Now WD passport disks I have dissected have USB on the disk logic board instead of being SATA and a JSM type USB SATA chip. This makes it hard as the USB logic is discrete from the hard disk logic. Worse is that WD is using drive encryption which makes recovery almost impossible.

My suggestion is to use several disks and redundant backups so this kind of headache is eliminated. USB enclosures and hard disks are not very costly. Hard disks can last over 2 years easy so its easy to put them in a plastic box on shelf.

SSD suffer from bit rot so they are a poor choice for long term archives. UHD BD media are more durable and can last at least 10 years.

So finding a suitable ROM for WD passport is up there with chicken teeth.

[ddrecovery]

AFAIK this WD disk product has so many revisions it may be almost impossible to find the right donor for a recovery. The WD passport lineup has been a real horror story.

I have found value with my Orico 5-disk box which makes it trivial to copy data around. My more recent 4-SSD box does the same with M.2 SSD. Both can have media yanked and replaced as desired.

Now WD passport disks I have dissected have USB on the disk logic board instead of being SATA and a JSM type USB SATA chip. This makes it hard as the USB logic is discrete from the hard disk logic. Worse is that WD is using drive encryption which makes recovery almost impossible.

My suggestion is to use several disks and redundant backups so this kind of headache is eliminated. USB enclosures and hard disks are not very costly. Hard disks can last over 2 years easy so its easy to put them in a plastic box on shelf.

SSD suffer from bit rot so they are a poor choice for long term archives. UHD BD media are more durable and can last at least 10 years.

So finding a suitable ROM for WD passport is up there with chicken teeth.

Thanks. Very informative.....

[Hardcore Games]

I have long been on the WDC forum where I have discovered the headaches ato backup bout the Passport line of USB disks.

I have tons of USB enclosures and lots of USB hubs so I can connect everything. Windows chokes at about 23 drives but that is enough to use disks for recovering laptop media or M.2 devices.

M.2 SSD tend to die outright and are unrecoverable. For that reason I suggest 7-zip which can be run to backup daily. 7-zip supports TAR files which even Windows can open albeit slowly.

[ddrecovery]

I have long been on the WDC forum where I have discovered the headaches ato backup bout the Passport line of USB disks.

I have tons of USB enclosures and lots of USB hubs so I can connect everything. Windows chokes at about 23 drives but that is enough to use disks for recovering laptop media or M.2 devices.

M.2 SSD tend to die outright and are unrecoverable. For that reason I suggest 7-zip which can be run to backup daily. 7-zip supports TAR files which even Windows can open albeit slowly.

I guess you couldn't tell L was joking.....

[pepe]

Or1g0 and usb enclosures are promoted too often while posts tend to be even more useless than some of mine.

[Hardcore Games]

Or1g0 and usb enclosures are promoted too often while posts tend to be even more useless than some of mine.

USB enclosures make it easier to test disks etc quickly as well as identify firmware versions etc.

My Orico box is trivial to test large numbers of disks quickly. I have not see such a box for SAS disks yet.

[WebClaw]

And why do you think that is Hardcore Games?

[cheadledatarecovery]

This thread seems to be getting a bit off-topic! Perhaps replies from only those who are used to saving firmware resources from WD disks would be useful.

Those others I've contacted, including Ace Ts have not had a WD50NMZM-59BDAS1 / 0001000C for a backup of the resources. If anyone is interested, I managed to save most of the modules - I just need module 02. So if anyone needs an incomplete backup (it does include a working version of 11 / LDR) then just get in touch and I will supply.

Thanks,
John

[fzabkar]

Could you upload your resources here? I would be interested in having a look. There may be a backup somewhere in the SA.

[Hardcore Games]

Searching fleabay for the disk in question shows prices are sky high for one disk and possible severale are needed to find the right firmware. One vendor wanted US $399.

[Hardcore Games]

Searching fleabay for the disk in question shows prices are sky high for one disk and possible several are needed to find the right firmware. One vendor wanted US $399.

[fzabkar]

I've just analysed a Spyglass 2 SA dump. It contains the dumps of two SA regions. The second region contains an identical copy of module 02. Has anyone tried that?

[cheadledatarecovery]

Download of resources:

01-0CC-WDC WD50NMZM-59BDAS1-01-01A01

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lgojzemfuzndqckkug75r/01-0CC-WDC-WD50NMZM-59BDAS1-01-01A01-8208.1.7z?rlkey=euw6bsuuj3vopf8hg8n4si504&st=5bxxf2w2&dl=0

Note module 02 is not present - both copies were unreadable.

[fzabkar]

I think there should be a copy of module 02 at ABA 0x101D52. This is located in SA region #1. The module's size is 8 sectors.

[fzabkar]

I think there should be a copy of module 02 at ABA 0x101D52. This is located in SA region #1. The module's size is 8 sectors.

That should have been ABA 0x102C16. If there is a region #2, then module 2 would be at ABA 0x1BD4B6.

I'm not sure if I understand the regions correctly. I thought perhaps that there were two regions per head, in which case there would be 4 copies of the SA. Now I'm wondering whether each region is on a separate head.

This is a region template in the ROM:

Code:

Reg#    Reg size     Reg loc
----  ----------  ----------
0x00  0x0005C8FE  0x00000000
0x01  0x0005C8FE  0x000BD000
0x02  0x0005C8FE  0x0017A000
0x03  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x04  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x05  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x06  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x07  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x08  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x09  0x00000000  0x00000000

It suggests that the default configuration has 3 regions. Obviously these are at different locations, with different sizes.

[cheadledatarecovery]

Just two regions on this HDD. Both areas of the platter where 02 is located reported ABA errors for the entire module for copy 0 and copy 1. A full search of both regions took place.

The reason for the requirement of 02.rpm on an exact match, is to assess the security options to see if WD have made any changes from previous generations of disk. At the moment the donor 02 used from a 0001000C /WD50NDZW-11BCSS0 has allowed the disk to calibrate, but all data is encrypted. And, before anyone asks, the PCB is the original.

There were also some ABA read errors in 190, but this has been dealt with, and a rebuilt 190/translator has been made, reporting the correct allocation of data on the disk. Using it allows for reading LBA showing (encrypted) data with some "00" towards the end of the disk. This fits in with what the customer reported as to the disk being close to full capacity.

[Hardcore Games]

Just two regions on this HDD. Both areas of the platter where 02 is located reported ABA errors for the entire module for copy 0 and copy 1. A full search of both regions took place.

The reason for the requirement of 02.rpm on an exact match, is to assess the security options to see if WD have made any changes from previous generations of disk. At the moment the donor 02 used from a 0001000C /WD50NDZW-11BCSS0 has allowed the disk to calibrate, but all data is encrypted. And, before anyone asks, the PCB is the original.

There were also some ABA read errors in 190, but this has been dealt with, and a rebuilt 190/translator has been made, reporting the correct allocation of data on the disk. Using it allows for reading LBA showing (encrypted) data with some "00" towards the end of the disk. This fits in with what the customer reported as to the disk being close to full capacity.

This suggests the zero track where the error table and controller firmware is stored is damaged possibly due to one of several errors. Usually the zero track is static and usually is safe as long as the disk is powered once in a while.

Its possible a head crash has damaged the track which is more likely. Hard disk encryption is not universal but malware can do some damage. The ATA standard applies to disk encryption but NVMe is somewhat different.

If you get a copy of the zero track, post a copy here and maybe somebody can help figure out what to do next.